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Browse stories from the iTrucker archive.

News · May 13, 2020

TV celebrity charged with stealing PPP money on behalf of trucking company

Story by John Gallagher, Washington Correspondent at FreightWaves.com A reality TV star who received over $2 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money to allegedly pay trucking company employees has been arrested on federal bank fraud charges. Maurice “Mo” Fayne, known as “Arkansas Mo” and a frequent guest on “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta,” applied for a PPP loan as the sole owner of a Georgia corporation called Flame Trucking, according to federal authorities in Georgia. Fayne, 37, made an

News · May 13, 2020

FMCSA extends COVID-19 Hours Of Service (HOS) exemption to mid-June

Story by: John Gallagher, Washington Correspondent at FreightWaves.com FMCSA has extended until June 14 broad exemptions from hours-of-service (HOS) rules for drivers hauling freight deemed essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. The extension, issued today (May 13), marks the second time the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) exemption has been extended since the original order was put in place immediately following the national emergency declared by President Donald Trump on M

News · May 12, 2020

Food consumption patterns might change for good, due to coronavirus

Story by: Vishnu Rajamanickam at FreightWaves.com The COVID-19 pandemic has worked supply chains to the hilt, with demand for essential products spiking as people started quarantining themselves indoors. As more people looked to order-in food to their homes than go to a nearby restaurant, food consumption patterns have witnessed a considerable shift. Supply chain visibility company project44 has come out with data that shows food shipments to restaurants and hotels were down 9% compared to pre-c

News · May 12, 2020

Weekly Fuel Report: May 11, 2020

Weekly Fuel Report: May 11, 2020, and Infographic by Emily Ricks at FreightWaves.com Learn more at SONAR.FreightWaves.com Source and credits: freightwaves iTrucker / Mario Pawlowski

News · May 11, 2020

CDC issued coronavirus guidelines for long-haul truckers

By: cdc.gov / iTrucker / Mario Pawlowski As a long-haul truck driver, you spend many hours alone in the cab of your truck. However, there are times when you will be at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19. For long-haul truck drivers, potential sources of exposure include having close contact with truck stop attendants, store workers, dock workers, other truck drivers, or others with COVID-19, and touching your nose, mouth, or eyes after contacting surfaces touched or handled by a person with

News · May 11, 2020

Almost 90,000 trucking jobs were lost in April only

Story by: John Kingston at FreightWaves.com With a staggering 88,000-plus jobs lost in the trucking sector in April, the question becomes whether the change is temporary or more structural. Since trucking is an industry in which barriers to entry and exit are so low, calling anything a “structural” change is always a bit risky. One need only look back at the wailing of 2018 that a driver shortage had the possibility to seriously cramp the nation’s economy for a long time to come. The Outbound Te

News · May 9, 2020

Trucking company that hauls for USPS, asked to give back PPP funds

Story by: John Kingston at FreightWaves.com A publicly-traded Phoenix-based trucking company, EVO Transportation that received $10 million under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been asked to give it back. The company, EVO Transportation and Energy Services, mostly hauls for the U.S. Postal Service. Much of its fleet appears to be powered by compressed natural gas (CNG). The company’s 10-K filing for 2018—the most recent 10-K submitted—said the USPS accounted for 95% of the company’s re

News · May 9, 2020

Trucking industry unites to provide hand sanitizer, masks for drivers

Story by: Clarissa Hawes at FreightWaves.com Ingrid Brown, a 40-year trucking veteran, says she was just “venting on social media” in mid-April about the struggles truck drivers were experiencing to find personal protective equipment, including face masks and hand sanitizer, at truck stops and other places out on the road, when she quickly discovered industry executives were paying attention and wanted to help. Brown said she has been working with executives at International Truck, Triumph Busin

News · May 8, 2020

Freight brokers push back against Trump’s price-gouging claims

Story by: John Gallagher, Washington Correspondent at FreightWaves.com Representatives of the truck brokerage industry swiftly refuted President Donald Trump’s allegations of price gouging against small-business truck drivers after the President took sides with the drivers on the issue. Trump, who tweeted his support for the drivers during last week’s “May Day” demonstration rally held by truckers near the White House, maintained that they are being “price gouged” when asked today (May 8) about

News · May 8, 2020

Trump says on the Live TV that he knows the truckers are "price gouged"

President Trump was interviewed by Fox News on May 8th, and responds to reporters' questions regarding truckers being price gouged by saying, "they are price -gouged." Hundreds of truckers came to Washington DC last Friday, May 1st, to protest low freight transportation rates, brokers transparency, safety, and more. As iTrucker iTrucker reported last Friday, President responded to protesting truckers last Sunday by tweeting, "I'm with the TRUCKERS all the way. Thanks for the meeting at the White

News · May 7, 2020

OOIDA asks Congress to mandate brokers supply deal data to carriers

Story by: John Kingston at FreightWaves.com The continuing anger on the part of independent owner-operators targeting the broker community for low trucking rates has now led to the owner-operators’ trade group asking Congress to amend a current federal law governing broker-carrier relations. In a letter sent Wednesday to all 535 members of Congress, Todd Spencer, the president and CEO of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, asked for what the organization called “two simple soluti

News · May 7, 2020

Good news for truckers: Ta-Petro begins reopening dine-in restaurants

Story by: Alan Adler at FreightWaves.com TravelCenters of America (TA-PETRO), (NASDAQ: TA) is slowly reopening dine-in restaurants at its travel plazas where allowed, but some changes forced by the COVID-19 pandemic may never be reversed. “We have already undertaken rolling some locations on and we’re doing it in a prudent and self-disciplined way,” TA CEO Jon Pertchik said on a first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. That means fewer hours, about half as many menu items, and as little as 25% oc